Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar, and egg yolks until well combined.
In a saucepan, thicken the milk with cornstarch and bring to a boil.
Stir the hot milk mixture into the lemon mixture and pour into a pie crust.
Bake and top
Bake the pie in the oven until set.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until frothy.
Spread the egg white mixture over the top of the pie and return to the oven for a few seconds to brown.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the filling and add richness to the lemon custard.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the hot milk so the filling sets smoothly when cooled.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy body of the filling with the yolks and sugar.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form a light topping that browns in the oven.
- Lemon
- Provides the acidity and aroma that flavor the filling.
The step that matters
Bringing the cornstarch milk to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the milk must boil before it is stirred into the lemon mixture. Underheated starch leaves the filling thin and runny after baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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